There was no glorious farewell for Mo Farah in the city where he burnt himself into the national consciousness as he struggled home in ninth place in his final London marathon. But the 40-year-old, who confirmed afterwards that he will retire in September, was grateful that he made it to the finish – due, in part, to the huge crowds that swelled the route from Greenwich to the Mall.
Farah, one of the eternal faces of London’s 2012 Olympic Games, even found himself beaten by two British athletes: the 25-year-old Emile Cairess, who showed immense promise to finish sixth in his debut marathon, and Phil Sesemann, who combines running with his day job as a junior doctor for the NHS, yet still came eighth. Intriguingly Cairess and Sesemann often train together in Leeds, although they no longer go on slower runs together after Cairness tripped over Sesemann’s dogs, Haile and Kipchoge, named after two legendary athletes.
Afterwards Farah, whose time of 2hr 10min 28sec was the slowest of his career, could not hide his disappointment. However, he admitted it could have been worse without the continuous cries of “Go on Mo!” and the ringing of cowbells spurring him on. “If it wasn’t for the crowd, at some point I would have dropped out,” he admitted. “That’s what kept me going. It was amazing support. Part of me wanted to cry. But the people were amazing, even in the rain, to line the streets. It’s what has kept me going for so long throughout my career.
“I will miss that feeling. I am emotional today. London has been so great to me over the years and I wanted to be here to say thank you to the crowd.”
Farah had started brightly but after 14 miles his legs became heavy and he laboured as Cairess overtook him. The changing of the guard normally happens at Buckingham Palace, here it was taking place just after Tower Bridge. “In terms of my preparation for this race, I felt great,” he said. “I was confident and I thought I could do between 2.05 and 2.07. But the body didn’t respond today and it was a little bit disappointing. That’s when you know when it’s time to call it a day.”
In 2012, Cairess had finished 24th in the Mini London Marathon – a three-mile junior race the day before the main event – as Farah won double gold at the Olympics in the same city. But his time of 2:08:07 means he now has the qualifying standard for the Paris Olympics – while Farah confirmed that he would retire after September’s Great North Run.
Cairess later attributed his talent as coming from his mother, Alison, who he started running with aged four or five. “I came through cross country, fell running in Yorkshire,” he said. “Proper running.” Asked what it was like to beat one of the greatest British athletes in history, Cairess replied: “I did beat Mo Farah but it’s not the Mo Farah who won the Olympics.”
Hugh Brasher, the London marathon event director, later admitted organisers were delighted that the day passed without any incident after fears that Just Stop Oil or protestors at the Extinction Rebellion event in Parliament Square could try to disrupt the race. “After all that was spoken before about Extinction Rebellion and Just Stop Oil, I was in Parliament Square earlier and it was a party,” he said. “People were celebrating together.
“Global warning and what we are doing to the planet has to be discussed, but we can work together on it, and Extinction Rebellion has proved it has moved on to another phase. The conversations we’ve had with them to ensure that this could happen have been amazing.”
Brasher also confirmed that organisers were expecting a record 48,200 finishers and to raise over £60m for charity before hailing a remarkable day of action in the men’s and women’s elite fields. “You couldn’t have written those races, they would have said you were making it up,” he added.
